At GOJEK, we are staunch believers of technology as a catalyst to help many people climbing the economic pyramid for a better life. Therefore, every day we come to work to crack the code for unleashing social impact at scale.
Since GOJEK has become a phenomenon in Indonesia and even worldwide, there have been several reputable organizations documenting our social impact. Among the notable mentions are taken from the report by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands for the UN and Gates’ 2019 annual letter.
In Indonesia, Demographic Institute of University of Indonesia (Lembaga Demografi, Universitas Indonesia) has been interested in looking at the social economic impact from GOJEK’s partners to the Indonesian economy since 2017. The Institute just released its latest study revealing the huge economic contribution in the added value that reached a little over US$3 billion (IDR 44.2 trillion) in 2018.
To put this number in perspective, the economic contribution from our partners in 2018 is equivalent to nearly three times of Jakarta’s MRT development cost in the first phase. This number even still hasn’t included the other 15 services on our app and the absolute number of the partners’ income. Phew, can’t even begin to imagine how big our impact is!
This added value was calculated from the difference between GOJEK partners and SME merchants’ earning before and after they joined GOJEK. If we zoom into each service, the contribution of our partners is as follows:
● GO-RIDE driver-partners are estimated to contribute IDR 16.5 trillion
● GO-CAR driver-partners are estimated to contribute IDR 8.5 trillion
● GO-FOOD’s Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) merchants are estimated to contribute IDR 18 trillion
● GO-LIFE talents (GO-MASSAGE and GO-CLEAN) are estimated to contribute IDR 1.2 trillion
This research follows a similar study conducted by LD FEB UI in 2017, which found GOJEK’s contribution to the Indonesian economy to be IDR 15.1 trillion (US$ 1.06 billion) from just two services: GO-RIDE and GO-FOOD.
It means that the contribution from GO-RIDE driver partners has increased by twice and GO-FOOD merchants have increased by almost three times compared to 2017. The latest study also finds that the average income of GOJEK’s driver-partners and GO-LIFE talents to be above the average minimum wage across the areas surveyed, nine major cities in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the good news also comes from our mom-and-pop stores as 93% of the SMEs respondents saw an increase in transaction volume, and 55% of SMEs saw their revenue classification increased after joining GO-FOOD. Our technology also has enabled them to climb the next ladder of their business expansion because 85% of the respondents invest revenues earned from GO-FOOD back to their business.
The 2019 study also reveals another interesting finding on how GO-LIFE has touched the lives of many female talents of GO-MASSAGE and GO-CLEAN. More than 70% of GO-LIFE survey respondents are female and nearly 50% of them are breadwinners of their families. Since they joined GO-LIFE, their average income increased by 72%.
Not only the respondents use their earnings from GO-LIFE to support their family’s livelihood, such as sending their kids to school and improving the kids’ nutrition, their increased income has also boosted the confidence of female respondents because they are now capable of fully providing of themselves without having to rely on others. Uplifting many women’s lives to a better stage are surely one of the pleasant unintended consequences from our work.
Knowing all this impact is like recharging fuel to GO-TROOPS’ spirit engine. We are still far away from the finish line. Therefore, we keep looking for the bright talents with a strong will to enlarge our social impact footprint in Southeast Asia.
Are you the one? If you think so, check out our vacancies here.
